Plura Ater Nox
Chapter 16
The conditions were putrid, disgusting, and beyond what was considered to be inhumane. Illness ran rampant, tuberculosis, typhoid and other body crippling ailments that only further weakened the despondent souls, who bravely sought to protect their kin against the common enemy that declared them the enemy in order to rob them of their basic human rights.
They had been reduced to a race of people who were hated through propaganda brought on and sponsored by the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Bitter memories of the anti-Semitic slurs that made their daily appearance in newspapers, on posters, the movies and radio addresses by Nazi leader, Hitler and top classroom officials.
It accumulated, including a series of decrees written up in Nuremberg in the year of 1935, issuing severe impediments on the rights of the Jewry, who considered themselves to be German and only Jewish by religion. They found themselves gradually getting more and more isolated, as their rights were stripped from them, their jobs robbed from them and their livelihood openly threatened.
Their lives were left in shambles as their places of worship were brutally and savagely burnt to the ground and their shops and business smashed by anti-Semites. The anti-Semites had been misguided and brainwashed by mind-altering propaganda that seemed to provide an answer to the never-ending depression that consumed their lives since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Jewry, at the end of it all, found themselves confined to the restricted ghettos, if they were lucky. The less fortunate were hauled off to concentration camps. They now were reduced to the lowest denominator, forced to fight for the shattered remains of their lives... With no hope.
In the ghettos, dead corpses at varying degrees of decay littered the streets of the cramped, German government imposed ghettos used to segregate from society who they considered to be the enemy of the state. They forced the Jewry to live in these inhuman settings, leaving them with no hope and no salvation. Each day passed with nothing of a positive development coming out of it.
Many spent long tiring days slaving away at slave labour camps, only to come home with no reward and to be punished for doing what they were told. The spirits of the populace sank each day, as escape became more and more of a twisted, dreamer's fantasy.
No one of them dared to mention it as they, the fearsome SS officers roamed the streets of the walled in ghettos that rotted and perished in death-like conditions of decay, symbolising the declining hope. The many rotting corpses that littered the gravel-strewn streets liberally served a grim reminder that hope was nothing but a fleeting fantasy.
Sighing, a young man, with striking deep green eyes and short teased jet black hair stepped gracefully around the dead, careful not to disturb them, as they deserved respect. They had their dignity robbed brutally from them in life, in the after life; they would get the much needed respect and dignity they deserved.
It saddened him to be a witness to the growing atrocities, day by day. He could only live and cling to the hope that he would remain in the ghetto and not be shipped off to the rumour concentration camps he heard of that littered the northern frontiers of Germany and sat around the Polish border. Some had even been rumoured to be in the south.
The young man wasn't for sure and had only gathered such information after overhearing muffled conversation between two SS officers as they patrolled the streets, looking for an excuse to beat up one of his kin.
He didn't know what to make of it and kept silent. He thought he had heard something about mass killings at something called death camps, but he had ruled it out, after assuming his theory might be brought on by hunger hallucination. He had wanted to tell his mother, but stopped short of it, fearing it would alarm her or make her think he was getting to be delusional.
He remained silent as he watched his brothers and sisters being rounded up with the returns of the SS officers to haul off another round to a concentration camp or the legendary death camp. He managed to remain out of view during the gatherings, using ice to hide himself. It worked during the cold long winter days, as he appeared to be nothing more than a block of ice.
During the last round up, the young man, Achan Stern deftly avoided authorities, wishing rather to be executed on the spot for blatant defiance than to be hauled off to the concentration camps, never to return or the worse, legendary death camps. Yet, he always felt something was burning in the back of his neck as he made his escapes to hide.
Feeling it was safe, as he came out after the latest round up, while hearing mentions of a couple of places, Bergen Belson and Auschwitz-Birkenau and something about the use of showers with Zyklon-B, he slipped out, cautiously looking around, ensuring that he wasn't going to get caught.
However, he hadn't counted on one of the SS officers to remain behind to conduct a check and random select one of the Jewry for slave labour or execution.
At the corner, leaning against the crumbling remains of a building, stood a tall, slender SS officer, holding a lit cigarette in hand. He tapped the ashes off, while watching the area with close scrutiny. He seemed quite normal; save for the odd silver hair that peeked out from beneath his cap and the eye patch he wore over his right eye.
His gaze landed on the youth. Clearing his throat loudly, he stepped over, drawing a gun. He demanded in a bark, "where are you skulking to, you insolent, morbid being?"
Achan groaned. "I... I'm sorry sir, I wasn't, I'm just trying to stretch!" He knew it was a lame excuse if any. He didn't want to be killed; he would rather make Yahweh angered at him by committing suicide than to let any German officer kill him.
The officer, Sergeant Major Albrecht Kepler, snorted sharply. "That's such bullshit, you little bastard. You're lucky I don't just call back the troops to haul your worthless ass off to Auschwitz so you can join the other dissidents."
Staring at the SS officer, Achan blinked and blinked again. 'No, it can't be! Hikitsu! He's... He's the enemy. But, he was my friend last time, why does he not remember...' He fought back the tears that wanted to fall in remembrance and remorse for the officer's inability to recollect the past. Yet, they didn't fall.
He instead, replied, "I am very sorry if I came off as being rude, sir." He hung his head sadly. 'I wish he was Hikitsu again...' He wanted the man to remember. He wanted the man to remember in order not to be a cruel misguided individual with conformist ideas. He no longer cared if he was shipped off one of the concentration camps; he cared about regaining an old friend.
The SS officer grunted and kicked the boy in the chest, sending the youth reeling back and sprawling over the cold, dank ground. He snorted derisively, contempt dancing steely in his eyes. "You're not sorry, you're just one of a sorry bunch who should have never been allowed to exist as you have in this unrighteous manner before now."
"We co-existed together before free of this misguided propaganda!" Achan exclaimed suddenly, looking up from the spot he lay on ground. His tone was no longer meek and around the inner part of his hand, on the palm formed a gathering of brilliant green light.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about, you insolent bastard?!" Sergeant-major Kepler growled at the boy, his hatred flaring in his visible eye. "And you have no right to even talk to me like that! You ought to be thankful I haven't beaten you to a bloody pulp boy!"
"Hikitsu! You're being irrational!" Achan replied sharply. His clenched fists relaxed, the green light the source of his inner power, summoned forth a sheet of ice that covered the ground and trapped the feet of the SS officer, drawing gasps of shock from the others who meekly walked around the area.
The visible eye of the SS officer shot open and wide. He let out a war cry and summoned forth a wall of ice, surrounding him and the boy. Within formed snaked composed strictly of ice. He sent them against the boy, only to watch them being repelled.
He growled to himself, using force. On his eye, he felt the character come to life, burning his skin, reflecting his passionate desire of loyalties to the state. He refused to let this weak, inferior being beat him, a member of the master race.
In the back of his mind, the hidden memories sparked, but didn't reach the conscious. It warned him to stop, telling him he was against his own kind. It warned he was facing off against another Genbu Seishi, the child at hand, Tomite.
Repeatedly he sent his snakes after to boy, only to watch them get shattered into pieces by arrows, which seemed to come out of nowhere. Arrows namely composed of ice. His senses zeroed in on the source, the boy.
'Tomite!' Sergeant-major Kepler blinked, staring at the Jewish boy that fought him so strongly, with strength worthy of the Jungvolk and Hitler Jugend that fought at the athletic tournaments, proving their worthiness of being part of the master race.
He didn't want to believe that an inferior being could match the strength of those that would lead the way to ultimate victory and bring the master race to power. Yet, it was undeniably there and it was getting entrenched in his memory.
With a mighty command, "stop!" He approached the boy. "Put your arrows and ice away. It's useless, Tomite."
Achan blinked dumbly, staring up at the officer.
"Despite you being a worthless son of a bitch Jew. If you renounce it, I can get you the necessary connections to convert you to a Catholic, permitting you a way to not have to go to the camps." Sergeant-major Kepler explained.
"Why are you being nice?" Was the only thing intelligent Achan could say.
"Because, I'd have my company royally screwed if you were to stay here. Your powers are developed and I'd rather not have to deal with a loss of men because of an impudent youth. So, rather than kill you or try and ship you off, which I doubt won't work, I'm giving you a chance to get your worthless Jewish ass out of here."
"What about my sister?"
"She's worthless. We can do without her. You're a threat and killing you will be impossible, unless you were to become infected. Then again, you would use the ice as a means of healing your body."
"I wouldn't say so, sir."
"You're overstepping your boundaries boy."
"No, I'm just telling you, it will be more than a vain waste of time. Also, I suggest you help my sister as well. She is able to gather the supplies the folk here need to survive. She could easily leave the ghetto, but out of love for the people, she has become our messiah."
"That is such bullshit!"
"Achan?!" Came a gentle feminine voice. It belonged to a tall, slender woman. She was build like other German women, but her hair was the same striking jet black as Achan's, as were her eyes.
She stopped at the ice wall, sighing. She glanced around before raising her fist and punching through the ice, using heat as her main source. Stepping over the shatter remains of the wall, she walked over to her brother. She spoke in Yiddish. "Achan, what are you doing?"
"I'm showing this asshole that we aren't inferior and that we aren't weak!" Achan replied, turning to face his older sister.
Sighing, Achan's older sister smiled sweetly at the SS officer. "Pardon my impudent younger brother, he really doesn't know what he's saying. He's being quite foolish right now..."
Sergeant-major Kepler stared hard at young woman. Her ability to shatter his wall of ice shocked him. It also stirred a memory within him. "Iname."
She pulled back, staring at him incredulously. "I haven't the faintest clue, nor am I her, good sir. I really must get going. Mother is going to start worrying about Achan. She fears him getting into trouble."
Taking her brother by the ear, she led him away. "I'm very sorry if he was rude, sir."
Instead of accepting the apology, Sergeant-major Kepler called out. "If you aren't her, then pray tell, what's your name? Give me a name, any name!"
"Arielle Stern." She replied, walking away quickly.
'Two more Genbu Seishi. There's no longer just me. How many more of them are there? Are they all Jewish?' Sergeant-major Kepler wondered, watching the pair of siblings, walk away.
~~~~
Standing outside the door, a midnight blue haired young man, with hair that brushed lightly against the nape of his neck, stared at a notice he had been handed by an officer in uniform. He had smartly saluting the man, saying he would be honoured to serve the state. But his statements had been purely in hypocrisy.
He continued to stare at the notice. He knew it meant death. War had been something he had always hated; now and forever. He had the fear of it entrenched in his heart. He remembered the tragedy of losing his friends, only to watch two survive.
He had at first, when he met his love, didn't know why she clung vainly to him. He felt he had no worth and that she was worthy of more than he was. He didn't believe he had the honour to be the man she needed. He felt incomplete, like he was missing a part of himself.
After a series of rather traumatic, life transforming events, he found himself complete, knowing the present and past and living with who he was. The other factor that completed him was the young, loyal woman that served as his wife. She didn't care if he thought he wasn't complete, she loved him fully as though he were.
His eyes remained glued to the notice, the strings of his heart tearing as he pictured the agony that would strain over his wife's face as she broke down into hysterical sobs. She loved him and asked him never to join the army, but to stay and work in the city or on the farm on which they now made their living. She had said she would do whatever it took to keep him out of the wave of militarism and sweeping imperialism that got young men caught up in the honour of being a warrior.
He sighed softly. 'For you, Miaka.' With that, he tore the notice in half and let the two halves drop to the ground. Without a word, he returned to the small house. He didn't intend on mentioning a word of it.
He stopped, remembering a threatening line from the notice, demanding that he join the imperial army or face dishonourable death, both him and his family. He then knew it would be inevitable that he would have to explain it to his wife.
A thought them dawned on him. He remembered Miaka telling him of how Yui and her parents had fled the Japan after the initial attack on Pearl Harbour and sought sanctuary away from the Empire of Japan and its emperor with his ideals of militarism and sweeping imperialism.
He could do the same thing, free him and his wife and their unborn child from the tyranny of the nation. He knew the action would be risky and he would have to gracefully dance around the feared Kempei-tai. Despite the Kempei-tai being the military police of Japan, the young man, Sukanami Taka knew they wouldn't take lightly to desertion.
The action would likely cost him and Miaka their lives...
TBC...
~~
Author's Notes: Well, it looks like I got chapter 16 out sooner than I thought. That's good, is it not? Yes it is. Now then, as you might have noticed, the first part of the chapter has questionable content. I'm aware of that and I wanted to use a controversial issue from the period in my writing, as I feel it shouldn't be shadowed.
The ghettos are as described. The references to events also occurred. If you're curious, the decree that took away the right of Jews was the Nuremberg Decree of 1935... Below are some sites of interest if you would like to know from whence I gathered such information:
History Place: World War Two in Europe - [http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm]
The History Place: Genocide in the 20th Century - [http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/holocaust.htm]
The History Place: The Holocaust Timeline - [http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html]
Kempei Tai: Founded in 1881 it became a power in its own right. Originally known as the Military Police of Japan they were torturers par excellence . During World War11, there were around 75,000 members who brought unspeakable terror to all countries occupied by Japan. The Kempei Tai (Japanese counterpart of the Nazi Gestapo) was abolished on October 4, 1945, by the Allied Occupation Authorities. British military courts sentenced to death twenty one Kempei-tai for the murders of Malay civilians and eight others for the torture and murder of British prisoners of war.